


Double Take

by overworkedunderwhelmed



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hot Mess Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:21:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29299560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overworkedunderwhelmed/pseuds/overworkedunderwhelmed
Summary: It was quickly becoming a habit for Ladybug to sit and talk with Chat Noir.  Just to spend a bit more time chatting.  To spend a little more time playing around in those rare hours where they weren’t rushing off to battle or fighting the smaller battles on the other side of the mask.With the added weight of the Guardian duties, Marinette never needed it more.  She never needed her partner more.Only, she wasn’t prepared for what she might see.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 41
Kudos: 321





	Double Take

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to Dqawesomeness and BrokeLau for beta reading!

It started, as these things so often did for her, with Adrien. Or rather, one of his many billboard advertisements Gabriel had plastered along the Parisian skyline.

Up here on the rooftops, each and every single one of Adrien’s billboards never failed to draw Ladybug’s gaze. 

Subtly, the arc of her path drifted slightly towards his warm, happy expression. Worn out as she was from the extra burden of the Guardianship on her shoulders, it was the only closeness she could still allow herself to enjoy. 

It was hard enough for her to pretend she didn’t still have feelings for Adrien. She had desperately tried to put all thoughts of him from her mind. He was with Kagami now, after all. 

Even with as much practice as she had living behind a mask, it was much harder to wear a smile around Kagami and pretend her heart wasn’t crushed by the weight of it all.

Chat Noir noticed. 

Of course, he did. His ability to quickly read her mind was a large part of what made him such a valuable ally and friend. Glowing green eyes blinked upwards, guarded and assessing the giant billboard before scrambling ahead. 

“Even I can pose like that, you know?” Chat snickered, sticking a sudden landing upon the rooftop. “It’s not like it’s that hard.” 

Peering over at him, Ladybug marveled just a little at his surprisingly admirable job of mirroring the impossible pose. That fragrance advertisement captured Adrien’s mid-jump. Of course, Chat Noir was remarkably adept and the baton helped to capture the right angle, holding perfectly still as she drew closer.

Her brows rose. Even his expression was strikingly close. That was, of course, before Chat Noir decided to cross his eyes and touch his tongue to his nose.

Ladybug snorted. Collapsing into a fit of giggles, she fell clumsily backwards against the rooftop. She hadn’t even realized just how much she needed to laugh until he’d shifted to the most absurd antics. 

He stretched, watching with undisguised amusement as she laughed freely. She finally flopped down bonelessly against the roof tiles.

“Hey,” Chat winked gleefully. The exaggerated motion drew her focus entirely. Though his eyes were still mischievous, it wasn’t his usual, uncanny smooth motions and cat-like grace. 

Considering her own momentary lapse in grace, it was far more compelling to her at that moment. Enough so that she had barely noticed him leaning down to lend her a hand back up until his clawed glove had clasped fully around hers. “I told you I am a _model_ partner.”

His smile slowly softened as she stood safely back on her own two feet, growing only after she dutifully rolled her eyes at his pun. 

* * *

From then on, patrols were running a little more frequently. Chat Noir himself had requested it. Frankly, she was glad for it. Right now, she knew she needed him to help her relax when things got a little too tough.

He was upon the rooftop, waiting for her. Ladybug peered up with a grin, meeting the sweet smile on his face. He played absently with his ring, as they watched over the city and talked about the Akuma attack of the day.

It was days like this, where she sat beside him, head resting upon his shoulder, that she grew to repent her decision to push him away. 

The one very good thing about Chat Noir moving on was that he _had_ listened. He had taken her honest request seriously, faithfully following through to respect her wishes. Chat Noir trusted her enough to know she knew her own heart; he trusted her enough to believe it when she said that she still wanted him to be happy, even if it couldn’t be with her. Anything else just wasn’t going to be fair to him, after all.

Of course, there had been one little, unforeseen problem with him moving on, especially in the aftermath of her journey to that ill-fated alternate future.

Ladybug couldn’t help but watch him now. She worried about him. Especially after he’d dropped more than a few hints that his life on the other side of the mask wasn’t nearly as rosy as he sometimes pretended behind that smile which didn't reach his eyes.

The years had only proven that he wasn’t always the jokester she’d first thought. There was much more to him behind that mask than she’d ever been ready to believe. As the threats posed against them grew steadily more serious, so too did he. In fact, after she had become the Guardian, Chat Noir had become more thoughtful. 

He quirked his head, staring at her curiously. “What have you planned out this far...?”

Ladybug smiled, hearing that unsaid “My Lady” lingering heavily in the air. He’d even pressed his lips into a tight line to keep from saying it. 

To be fair, she hadn’t ever expected him to start offering more solutions. His approach was more straightforward than hers, but it was every bit as logical. 

With the added weight of the guardianship on her shoulders, she gladly took almost every suggestion he offered to heart. At least when she could… There was still so much she hadn’t even been able to tell him just yet.

Tilting her head, she watched him spell out the details of his approach. 

It’s like the moment he decided to try to stop impressing her, the boy he truly was beneath the mask just started to shine through. She’d never been impressed with his tendency to show off, but time had taught her that she needed his own brand of fun to help bear the sometimes onerous burden. Time together had only confirmed that he knew just how serious everything was.

His lips curved up slightly. “At least, that’s what I think.” With a bit of awkward uncertainty, he clasped his hands awkwardly behind the back of his neck.

Ladybug grinned. It wasn’t often that she got to see him so vulnerable. At least not without an Akuma taking away some part of who he truly was. “It’s a good plan, Chaton,” she murmured, fondly ruffling his hair. 

“Thank you,” he beamed, gently leaning into her touch.

“I don’t want to rely on it too much.” Ladybug confided, an amused smile curving her lips. “I really do worry that Hawkmoth might start expecting it, too. If he prepares to counter it, I don’t want to have to be caught without another plan at the ready. However, you should be ready to use the opening if you can take it.”

His heart-stoppingly hopeful smile caught her eye. “You don’t mind?”

Feeling a little lightheaded, Ladybug sat back slightly, farther away from the edge. _That was weird._

He sat back, mirroring her actions. His brows furrowed, as if he couldn’t make sense of what was wrong. He wasn’t exactly alone in that. 

Ladybug shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. “We can’t protect Paris forever. Unless we can figure out how else to even the odds in our favour, we’ll have no choice but to spend our whole lives fighting him.”

Chat Noir stilled, lips slightly parted. _Breathlessly_. “You would do that?”

She exhaled wearily, wrinkling up her nose in distaste. “I’d rather not be fighting him for _that_ long. I’m not about to give up either, especially after all we’ve done.”

“You’re amazing, Ladybug.” He gazed at her with undisguised awe. His half-lidded eyes slowly blinking open, compelling green filling her entire gaze. “Do you know that?”

“Did I--?” It was then that Ladybug did a _double-take_. 

She had considered herself so immune to his charms for so long, that it had been easy to ignore the subtle speed up of her heart. Her heart frantically racing while transformed wasn’t anything new. Never in her wildest dreams did she ever think that Chat Noir would look so oddly _familiar_. 

“Paris. I love all of it.” She stood up suddenly, floundering as her arms started to suddenly pinwheel. “You love all of us.”

Chat Noir smirked, clearly unfazed by her sudden stumbling. His eyes widened slightly with obvious concern, but perhaps that was due to her precarious balance over the edge of the rooftop. “Even the billboards?”

The squeak that slipped past her lips would have done Mullo proud. 

* * *

Swinging back across Paris as if Hawkmoth himself were on her heels, Ladybug’s bluebell eyes were startled wide open. She didn't dare to stop, didn't dare to land until touching down on her own balcony.

Stumbling as she tried to flip down into her room, Ladybug detransformed onto her bed in an undignified heap. Thankfully, her head was already buried into her cat pillow, so it could muffle her screams...

“Marinette?” Tikki whispered, a hint of concern sharpening her tone. “Are you alright?”

“Peachy,” she groaned, barely lifting her face from the pillow. Not that it would help, even her ears were burning now. “I just stammered so badly in front of _Chat Noir_ that I had to run far, _far_ away.”

“Oh, Marinette,” Tikki breathed, ruffling her hair much as her mother often did.

At least she had only told him that she loved the “Paris of people” before stuttering and stumbling away as fast as her yoyo could carry her.

It was so many little things that he did. The tiniest quirks. The things he said in those quieter moments where they were alone... The uncanny way he could mirror that exact pose, on-demand. Her mind had only connected them all, dot after dot. It hadn’t been the sudden inspiration in battle, but instead a slow, progressive removal of his mask, millimeter by millimeter.

After all, she knew the rest of him so very well. Just, perhaps not as well as she had believed. He had nearly as many secrets as she did, only he was a little bit better at hiding them.

He could have picked on her horribly about her painfully obvious crush. Instead, he did what he always did: used what he knew to save her, over and over again. In countless ways. 

Even when what seemed like ages ago, Alya had shown her the possibility she just hadn’t been ready to see.

Turning onto her side, Marinette hugged her cat pillow closer. It just figured that now she was doomed to be even more hopeless than before.


End file.
